The Twenty-first Century offers us a chance, a unique chance, to coalesce around common global interests - to reverse the nefarious consequences of climate change, manage clean water reserves that are becoming a rare commodity, save our polluted rivers, lakes, and seas, replenish the depleted fish stock, eliminate extreme poverty and hunger, and de-escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula and South China Sea, and between India and Pakistan, India and China. If we were to spend less on armament, we would be able to spend more on education, health, and food security for all.

These are matters of survival for all and yet, to date, there has not been enough understanding of the urgency of addressing these challenges. Words of Hope in Troubled Times is a collection of my speeches and writings from 1992 to 2017.

I hope this book will inform, increase understanding, and inspire a sense of urgency, for only when these challenges are understood and felt by all, will there be concerted global action.

Jose Ramos-Horta